The invention relates to apparatus which can be used to identify the location of objects in the field of view during real time, i.e. live, television presentations. This would be useful in surveillance and exploration vehicles that use television systems to visually locate objects whose positions are known (e.g. via acoustical sonar inputs). The apparatus would also be useful in real-time commercial television broadcasts such as sporting events, e.g. in a football game, the identification of the line of scrimmage and first down line during the course of actual play, and news events coverage, e.g. during a rocket lift-off, the identification of the position of the rocket as it becomes obscured by clouds.
Related techniques present alphanumeric data superimposed on an unused portion of the television picture, e.g. the time of day, baseball batting averages, etc. For televising sporting events, sometimes a full view of the participant is shown in the main part of the TV screen, with a corner of the screen showing only the head, to show the facial expressions in more detail.
The invention disclosed herein represents a unique combination of data sensing instruments, yielding optical and geometrical information, to provide a substantially more informative display than those of prior art television systems. The presentation of markers and characters that are an integral part of the real-time television picture has not heretofore been done. Data displays resultant from present techniques differ from the invention disclosed herewith in that such data is not directly identifiable with objects in the field of view, e.g. it does not remain attached to objects when the television camera changes its field of view.